The History of Reform VII

Reform at Myspace

Jesper and Alvaro G started to hang out regularly, meeting up at one of the thousands of bars in Donostia. As Jesper's Spanish got better he and Alvaro G started to talk more profoundly and realized that they were more or less twin-souls when it came to music. They benefited from each other since their musical backgrounds were completely diffrent. Jesper's came more from an Anglo-Saxon world and Alvaro's from a Latin one. Alvaro had travelled in Latin-America for a couple of years and had stayed for an extra long period of time in Brazil. There he had learnt to appreciate bossa-nova. He could play the guitar and the harmonica at the same time and perform an endless repertoire of bossa numbers. Among other things they recorded two of Alvaro's own compositions, with harmonica as the lead instrument. Jesper slowly drew Alvaro's attention towards Miles Davis and he became more and more interested. The Spanish version of Reformed started to form. Alvaro knew a pianist, Paúl San Martín. Pa´l knew a drummer, Fran Gasol, and at the bar Ondarra right beside the surfer's beach, Zurriola, Jesper met Pitú, who had played with Manu Chau.

They started rehearsing at Alvaro's apartment.

(It is amazing what a difference there is between countries. Rehearsing with electric bass, drum kit, electric guitar, piano and harmonica inside a regular apartment, without receiving complaints from the neighbours. In Sweden that would be totally out of the question. Actually, I think we wouldn't even consider trying.)

The band worked perfectly and is immortalized on the cd Concierto en Altxerri

To be continued...

Today's video is from 2001 with Reform 3



Enjoy!
Jesper